Marian Wright Edelman

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Marian Wright Edelman (1994)

Marian Wright Edelman (* 6 June 1939 in Bennettsville , South Carolina ) is an American activist for children's rights and child protection , as the founder and chairman of the Foundation Children's Defense Fund with the Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded.

Life

The daughter of a Baptist preacher studied at Spelman College , a college for African American girls in Atlanta , and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1960 . Already during her studies at Spelman College she got involved with the support of her professor Howard Zinn and was later a member of the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1961 to 1963 . A postgraduate studies of law at the Law School of Yale UniversityShe graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1963 and worked as a lawyer after being admitted to the bar . In 1968 she married civil rights attorney Peter Edelman, with whom she has three sons. The youngest son, Ezra Edelman , is an Oscar winner .

In 1973 she founded the Children's Defense Fund , a foundation that campaigns for children's rights and child protection in the United States, and has been its president ever since. Over the decades that followed, she became involved in numerous other organizations, serving not only on the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation and the non-profit think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), but also an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Edelman, who was also the director of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) political organization , also supported Democratic presidential candidates Carol Moseley Braun and John Kerry .

In 1985, she received a five-year and 500,000 US dollars doped Fellowship ( Fellowship ) of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation . She has received several awards for her long-term commitment to children's rights and child protection and not only received the Albert Schweitzer Prize in 1988 , but also the Thomas Merton Award in 1990 . In 1991 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1994 to the American Philosophical Society . In addition, she received the Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America , the Windstar Award in 1993 and the Heinz Award in 1996, before she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 , one of the two highest civilian awards alongside the congressional gold medal of honor of the USA. In 2000, she was also honored with the Library of Congress's first-ever Living Legend award.

Publications

  • The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children & Yours (1992)
  • Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors (1999, memoirs )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carol Lawson: AT HOME WITH: Marian Wright Edelman; A Sense of Place Called Family. New York Times , October 8, 1990, accessed January 16, 2018 .
  2. ^ OJ: Made in America. Retrieved January 16, 2018 .
  3. ^ Member History: Marian Wright Edelman. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 26, 2018 (with a short biography).
personal data
SURNAME Edelman, Marian Wright
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American activist for children's rights
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Bennettsville , South Carolina